The Third Side: Tales of Cross
by Feathermoon18
Summary: Marian Cross as a scientist and various sleep deprivation inspired adventures.
1. Chapter 1

A swell of music caught the redheaded young man's attention as he walked down the long hallway that was the european Black Order's HQ. The fellow scientist who was helping Cross carry paperwork to the other science division paused mid step.

"Ah, that must be the new exorcist everybody has been talking about. I heard she transferred here from the American Branch HQ," the russet-eyed man said to his redheaded compainion.

Cross turned his head to listen better. With his ear angled towards the music he could make out the distinctly muted tones. Something in the way it reverberated off the walls was… different from ordinary singing.

"Parasite type, right?" He asked, recalling a tidbit of conversation over the earlier meal. He'd taken his work in with him during lunch at the cafeteria again, and had only noticed a word or two of the chatter while he was only half listening.

Gossip was fine and all but he'd been focusing on some complicated concepts that wouldn't be left alone until they were understood. His personal projects had to be worked on in his own time, since the Black Order had given him more than too much work on their own time.

Dominic shifted the stack of files he was carrying and Cross took that motion as a clue to keep going on their walk. Dominic continued his earlier comments as they neared the next division. "Yeah, parasite type vocal cords or something like that… Maria and her Innocence… Marta Carta I believe. When she sings, it's said that she has the ability to control minds, both people and akuma's alike."

Cross gave a low whistle, "That sounds useful."

As they were, in their usual way, Cross or Dominic made some obscene remark that made the other laugh in a dreadful fashion.

"We'll get our chance to met her soon enough. I bet Tiedoll will take over showing her around, since he'll be here at HQ for a while until he recovers."

"No doubt he'll bring her in to the cafeteria of dinner… but…" Dominic paused for the length of a breath as he thought to himself, "They'll probably ask us to study her Innocence. So we might see her before dinner."

Cross shrugged in reply, since by that time the two of them had already made it down to the lower level science devision and research facility.

Boss Chief Arminé was there to greet them, as if sensing the two of them with a _Fresh Blood Radar _ that she used to rope less-exhausted scientists into her clutches

"Cross, Dominic, are these the files from the finders in the south? The pair who are checking out the lake that glows at night?" Arminé asked, and practically swept them into her office… which was little more than a desk completely overwhelmed with papers, books, and files.

Cross eyed the escape route and wondered how quickly Arminé could run after him. He didn't get far in that thought when one of the other worn down scientists gave him a look that said _"Try to run and you will regret it,"_ as both a warning and a threat.

Cross huffed when Arminé didn't even give him a chance to choose if he'd take that risk or not. She practically pushed them into another adjointing room, determined not to let her prey escape. Cross was even more annoyed at the fact that her other captives were all too eager to help their demented captor herd the new ones along, as if the hope that the new blood might lighten the load enough for the tired ones to finally get a moment of break time.

"This is the newest set of Innocence to choose accommodators," Arminé said as she hurried them to a table on the side of the room. The room was full of tools and materials for the creation of Anti-Akuma weapons. Cross felt whiplash at how quickly she changed the topic, as if she didn't care about their task of delivering paperwork.

"It's our task to refine them into weapons. You two," she gave the newbies, cross and dominic, a pointed look, "take Rosko's team," she finished, pointing to a ragged looking 'dirty bastard' that Cross took immediate dislike of.

Dominic looked like he was going to cry.

"All I wanted was to go to bed after we finished the paperwork," he whispered brokenly. Even Cross felt sympathetic for the fellow scientist. Bed was a luxury that many of them never had the time to enjoy.

"Chin up, good lad, we'll be done in no time with this extra help. I've heard good things about you and your friend's/partner's skilled abilities, boy." Rosko said to Dominic, patting the man on the back. This dirty bastard's attitude was far too chipper for Cross's tastes, though Dominic seemed to cheer up at the prospect of getting this over with, _and showing off his talents no doubt, _so that he could potentially still get some sleep in before next shift.

"Come on, Cross, let's get this finished so we can go to bed!" Dominic said shamelessly and made a show of rubbing his hands together. He seemed to do some quick calculations in his head while he rolled up his sleeves. "If we hurry we could be done with an entire hour of sleep left," he said with a hopeful gleam to his eye.

A young man was the first of the two new accommodators to need them to fashion an Anti-Akuma weapon. He'd been recruited by a general with loose innocence, so it had yet to take any shape or form yet. Dominic took the task of creating an anti-akuma weapon along with the old man who was visiting from the asian branch.

The second accommodator was a young woman. She seemed pale after Rosko took the feather-engraved dagger from her and set it on the table in front of Cross. They set to work, sometimes discussing the designs as they took the merely decorative blade that the Innocence had joined with, and turned it into a powerful weapon..

True to Rosko's word, it didn't take long with the extra pairs of skilled hands. Between the four of them the small craftsmanship skills shared easily and they were done with in a couple of hours. Practically nothing compared to some of the tasks that the scientists were often goven.

Cross handed the lady her new twin daggers that expanded in size and shape like twin scythes. Names would be given later, but for the moment Cross only had one thing on his mind. His main concern was sneaking out before Arminé decided he was awake enough to take another shift. The ex-priest redheaded scientist didn't have the energy for that.

Once glance at his friend told him the poor man was a lost cause. Dominic was already sleep-standing at this point. Cross took off at the earliest sign of an exit, knowing all too well that the effort to stir the fellow scientist from his daze would bring too much attention to themselves.

He'd get shit about abandoning the man later, but since his friend would have honestly done the same, Cross didn't feel guilty about leaving the man to fiend for himself. At this unholy hour of the night it was every man to fiend for themselves.

"No harsh feelings," he said under his breath after he'd made it halfway down the hall and the taste of freedom was sweet on his lips.

Freedom taste like trouble… or should he say _Tiedoll_. Damn it, the exorcist with the puffy hair was yet another one of those people Cross would much rather avoid when tired.

Really, he'd try to say some mushy stuff about taking care of himself and whatever the damn he pleased because to him, Cross was some scientist who… seriously, of everyone here at HQ, Tiedoll was the one who would show interest in all of the people as if they were humans and not pawns. For a tired, grouchy, cross Cross, he couldn't care less. He kept on walking by.

Tiedoll actually seemed so distracted that he didn't take notice of Cross at all.

Huh. Cross, having decided not to tempt the fates, made a dash for his room and slammed the door shut behind him as quickly as possible.


	2. Chapter 2

Alone in the safety of his own quarters at last.

Cross made a b-line for the bed and flopped unceremoniously onto the thin mattress. An indecent moan of pleasure rose from his throat at the chance to close his eye. Hardly waiting long enough to tug, toss, and kick off all of his clothes, Cross retired into a dreamless sleep that was so often sought out by so many that night, and actually achieved by few.

"…Good lord, man," Came the voice of the single most unwanted intruder into Cross's bedroom. Cross squeezed his eye shut even tighter, hoping the annoying man would go away.

"Get out of my room…" Cross grumbled.

"At least put on a nightshirt when you go to bed, for heaven's sake." It continued, taking any hope of the voice being a figment of lost sleep.

Cross reluctantly opened his eyelid just enough to see the tall man standing in front of a glowing crack in the air.

"It's my bedroom. I'll do what I damn please, Neah," Cross grumbled again, closing his eye and rolling over to pull the pillow over his head, "If you don't like the view you can leave."

Neah grumbled something and tossed either a blanket or a coat over the exposed scientist. / Cross grumbled when the man tossed either a coat or a blanket over his exposed body.

"Right, get up then. We've got things to do."

The red haired priest/scientist muttered some obscenities about the other man as he begrudgingly rolled out of the bed. It was a coat that Neah had tossed over him to cover him. Cross continued his grumbling as he found his skinny assed trousers.

Neah, with his trademark short dark maroon ruffled-messy-wild hair that stood on end, stood with his back turned to Cross. On the desk in front of him lay all of Cross's notes for the experiments he'd been working on in his own time.

Cross searched around for his shirt, which had gone missing, while the other man studied notes left on the desk, which was at the only other piece of furniture that was in the sparse room besides the bed. It also served as a nightstand.

"These are blue-prints for a golem?" Neah asked and Cross, having put his pants on now, but no shirt, walked over the two strides it took to be at the guy's side in order to look at the notes the man was referring to.

"Hm. Yeah, I was just putting together some design ideas," Cross said as he saw it was the sketches of some golems he'd thought up of over lunch the previous day.

"What about/ and how about /this one, with the cross in the front?"

"My latest design."

Neah paused to study it more closely, as it had caught his eye. Cross took this moment to scour the room for the shirt he'd must have tossed off earlier.

_Ah, there it is. _Cross thought as he spied a sleeve from under the bed. He bent down to snatch it up from where it'd been pushed down under the bed frame, next to a box of discarded bits and pieces of golems he used as scraps. Cross scowled fiercely as he noticed the abundance of lint and dust bunnies clinging to the white dress shirt. He didn't like dirty things.

Once he had shaken the dust off and cursed himself thoroughly for being so careless with his own clothes, Cross put the shirt on and gave Neah reason to believe that the redheaded scientist was dressed decently enough to go. The man promptly announced they were leaving, grabbed Cross by the arm, and practically dragged him through the glowing door of the ark.

Mana had a barely contained grin on the other side.

"Hey Cross, or Marian, depending on how friendly / sociable your mood is right now," Mana said in greeting, and laughed at the scowl Cross gave in response. "Cross it is. Brother has told you what we're doing, right? Or did he just abduct you from your bed again?"

Oh right. Neah was making a habit out of this, wasn't he? Cross had forgotten that point of annoyance in the dazed state of lack of sleep. No worries though, it wasn't too late for being reminded he could still be annoyed at the damn man.

"I figured you'd enjoy letting him in on the secret, Mana," Neah said as he entered the Ark behind Cross. The door in the mediterranean styled landscape's wall was numbered with a 13. This next one needs some major work. Cross knew that when Neah put a finger to his (neah's) forehead, the glowing door on the other end, in Cross's bedroom, had been closed. He was at the mercy of the twins now, with no escape. _Something I need to have a word with Neah about. I need to be able to get out without his permission. _Cross decided it would be resolved with a bit of magic and some lessons from Neah.

"Alright, so spill it ponytail. Where are we going this time, and why did my preciously scarce sleep need to be disrupted for the sake of gracing you two with my presence?" Cross asked.

"Edo Japan," Neah pipped in, cutting in before his twin had a chance to explain anything. "And for the record, I didn't know you were still sleeping. It's already long past sunrise here."

""

"Honestly, you're up all hours of the day/night anyways so it's not—"

"Brother you said I could tell him—"

"Oh, right, sorry. Do continue," Neah said, turning his back to them as he lead the way down the walking pathways.

Cross felt the scowl fusing permanently to his beautiful face. No, this was no good. He sighed with a breath of annoyance and forced his expression into one a little more relaxed, mildly haughty and still full of tired disdain for his current situation.

Mana gestured that they should follow his twin and Cross fell in line with him.

"So, are you ever going to explain?" Cross asked, wishing he had an alcoholic drink right about now.

Mana's face twisted into one of someone that had forgotten what they were doing, and he quickly cleared his throat in an effort to disguise it. Nervous fingers played with the ribbon tie around his starched collared neck. "Ah, well, like exorcists who are always chasing innocence, Neah has taken up a hunt of his own. Magic, you know. Almost a separate entity from both Akuma and Innocence, which by his measures are different sides to the same coin by the way,"

"Mhmm, interesting." Cross drawled slowly and with the most disinterest he could manage to let his words soak in so early in the morning. They got him out of bed for _this?_

Mana was saved only because Cross's interest had been caught once again by his twin brother's actions. Neah had ducked inside of one of the doors, marked with a question mark instead of a number. They followed suit.

Inside was a room that was nearly all pure white, with tiled floors and padded cushioned walls with the exception of one that was entirely mirror from floor to ceiling. The high ceiling made the otherwise smallish room feel spacious.

Neah settled himself onto the floor next to the piano that was the centerpiece of the room. Cross eyed the low couch and boldly claimed it before any other comments could be made. He sprawled out onto it and gave a hearty breath of relief. "If you two honestly don't have any reason to have me here, other than wanting my company, I'm going to take a nap now."

No one objected to his statement as he kicked off his boots (that he hadn't bothered fastening properly in the first place.)

Mana shot a glance at his brother, who just shrugged.

"Good… Great. Nap time it is," Cross said, pulling an arm over his face to block out the light. "Oh and Neah, I expect hearty compensation for the lost sleep. Get me some of that fine wine your lot always seems to have on hand. The more expensive the better," he added, waving a hand in the air. The weary scientist was already half gone and it didn't take long at all for him to fall asleep. One of the last things he was aware of being the muted sounds of the brothers squabbling. _Neah must have put up a sound barrier spell_ to keep the volume down and keep the peace. Nobody liked a seriously rude person and it was a little act to encourage some better feelings between the lot of them. Cross was thankful that the couch was soft and that the twins would leave him to sleep either until he woke up or he needed to return to the science division for his next shift.


End file.
